<p>I'm a little confused about Penn State's optional personal statement.</p>
<p>My first question is, should I bother doing this? Do they put a lot of weight on it?</p>
<p>My second question is well...what exactly are you supposed to write? I'm a little confused. Should it be like a common app essay, or more straightforward?</p>
<p>Also if you don't mind...</p>
<p>95 weighted GPA, 90 unweighted, 1850 SATs. Do you think I stand a chance?</p>
<p>The Penn State application personal statement asks “Please tell us something about yourself, your experiences or activites that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at Penn State This is your opportunity to tell us something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records.”</p>
<p>This is a fairly broad prompt, and most likely the same essay you prepared for the common app will work here. </p>
<p>Should you “bother” completing this section? Well, honestly my impression is that Penn State admissions are mostly by the numbers, but in a borderline case they may look to your EC’s and essay, and if you haven’t bothered to complete the essay, it doesn’t reflect well upon you. I think your stats look “likely” for admission but I’d recommend completing the essay to give yourself the best chance.</p>
<p>I just used my common app essay since they aren’t affiliated with the common app.</p>
<p>Make sure you cut-and-paste the entry, it will truncate if you type in the field. Yes, you should do it, but don’t agonize over it all. It’s just what they say : anything else you want them to know that would get you in? Want to elaborate on your work ethic, diversity, personal goals, community service? That’s where it goes. Both S1 and S2 wrote 200 words, that was the old word limit. Your common app essay is likely overly long, but a good place to start.</p>